Friday’s celebration included a standing ovation from the community members and activists. Amid the applause, Salvador Torres shouted, “Viva Chicano Park!”

He was there in the beginning, too, suggesting within days of the occupation that the giant T-shaped pillars holding up the bridge ramps be covered with art. He helped paint several of the murals, which are a swirling mix of history and legend, of politics and poetry, of struggles and triumph.

There are depictions of farmworkers, Mayan ruins, Mexican revolutionaries. “Our history must be told,” reads the writing on one mural. And now, Torres said, it always will be. “How can you forget it?” he asked.

Restoration of about two-dozen of the murals, damaged over the decades by the vibrations of cars overhead, was completed last year with the help of a $1.6 million federal grant. Because paints and sealants have improved since the 1970s, the murals seem especially vibrant now.